Draper Esprit Buys Seedcamp Funds for £17.9M

VC firm Draper Esprit has purchased seed investor Seedcamp’s Funds I and II in a £17.9 million deal.

The transaction will deliver a four-fold return to investors in the two funds.

As a result of the deal, Draper Esprit— which previously invested in UK companies such as LoveFilm and Graphcore— has now acquired a stake in FinTech unicorn TransferWise. Other companies in Fund I and Fund II’s portfolio include Codacy, Edited, Erply, Fishbrain, Codility, Winnow, Codeship, and Try.com .

Commenting on the deal, Seedcamp’s cofounder and managing partner Reshma Sohoni said in a statement: “We are thrilled to help our Seedcamp companies scale to the next level with the support and firepower of Draper Esprit. As the Seedcamp team continue to manage Funds I and II, Draper is the perfect partner to help us manage these businesses.”

Carlos Eduardo Espinal, the other managing partner, added: “We see this as a great outcome working alongside experienced and knowledgeable investors who’ve supported us for many years.”

“We look forward to continuing to work with the growing companies and founders from our first and second funds with Draper’s added horsepower.”

Although the transaction requires a change in its LP structure, Seedcamp will continue to manage the two funds as before, besides managing its third fund, which was not affected by the deal. Seedcamp will also be able to rely on follow-up investment from Draper Esprit.

Draper Esprit CEO Simon Cook commented on the deal in a statement: “Although principally a primary Series A, B and C VC Growth investor, we have also been very active over the years as a secondary tech investor in Europe having acquired a number of well-known VC portfolios and increasingly taking large direct stakes in later stage companies.”

“ This acquisition further bolsters our growing secondary business; increases our exposure to a really good portfolio of European technology companies including TransferWise, one of Europe’s most successful startups,” he added.